"Most search committees call someone they can control a 'safe guy.' St. Tim's called a dangerous guy," said Kevin Phillips, rector of St. Timothy's Episcopal Church in Mountain View. He let a slow grin spread across his face.

Phillips, 39, speaking in a slight Southern drawl, looks anything but dangerous as he relaxes in his office at St. Timothy's and explains.

In 1993, when the church called Phillips, St. Timothy's was a church in need of redevelopment, Phillips said.

"There were parishioners of the old economy -military, industrial, and retired - and no babies in the nursery.

"I told them that if they called me, I'd bring significant change. I'd turn it around in two years, or they could lock the doors," he said. And that is what Phillips has done.

From two services each Sunday, serving 40-50 people, the church has grown to four services of very different styles, serving about 250.

Phillips earned a Master of Divinity degree from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1990 and was ordained the same year. He worked as an assistant to the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, Ky., for 3 years before being called to St. Timothy's.

Phillips is married with a 6-year-old daughter.

Covenant groups, groups of parishioners that meet weekly to share Bible study and prayer, are at the heart of Phillips' theology.